consolidation

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that despite Apple's Location Services being in the off position, iPhones are still collecting your general location data. National media outlets have been analyzing recent reports that Apple's iPhones and iPads with 3G are tracking location data and storing it in an unsecured location on the iPhone.

According to tests performed by The Wall Street journal, those location data collection practices are not disabled even if all the Location Services (which are turned on by default) are completely turned off.

Seagate has agreed to acquire Samsung's hard drive business for $1.375 billion in a deal that gives Samsung a 9.6 percent stake in the hard-drive specialist and that forges an alliance for the new era of flash memory storage.

The companies announced the deal today, a new step in the steady consolidation of a major part of the computing industry. Last month, Western Digital signed a deal to acquire Hitachi's hard-drive unit for $4.3 billion, thereby vaulting it over Seagate to become the largest hard drive maker. Seagate's deal today would reduce the market … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission may soon set new rules that could help ensure that your smartphone is able to access the Internet anywhere in the U.S. that wireless service is offered, even if your provider doesn't offer network coverage.

On Thursday the FCC will vote on new rules that would force wireless phone companies, such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which have the largest nationwide coverage, to offer roaming rates to competitors at "fair and reasonable rates."

The measure, which has the backing of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, is expected to be passed by … Read more

Warner Music Group is reportedly entertaining acquisition offers even as the third-largest record company continues to pursue its own acquisition of troubled rival label EMI.

The New York Times reported that after being approached by buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Warner Music hired Goldman Sachs to seek out buyers. Instead of selling to KKR, Warner's management wanted to see what kind of price it could get on the open market.

Warner Music is home to such artists as Green Day, Faith Hill, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. According to the Times' story, Warner's private-equity investors want Warner … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed from our readers. This week we have questions on opening files directly leading to the launched application being treated like it's being opened for the first time, how to consolidate hierarchies of files of the same type into one folder, and the difference between iChat and FaceTime. We continually answer e-mail questions, and while we present a few here, we certainly welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: Opening files directly causes first-time application launch warning

MacFixIt … Read more

Shutterstock, a "microstock" company that sells royalty-free photographs for relatively low prices over the Internet, has acquired rival BigStockPhoto and a new sales method along with it.

Shutterstock had offered its photographs and videos through a subscription payment plan, but BigStockPhoto sells its individually with credits. Both rely on a large pool of photographers to supply them with stock photography used in everything from corporate PowerPoint presentations to tourist brochures.

"This addition will enable Shutterstock to better satisfy the diverse payment preferences of stock photo buyers worldwide," said Jon Oringer, founder and CEO of Shutterstock, in … Read more

Oracle has gone on a buying spree in the past few years, consolidating an impressive portfolio of market-leading technology. But there's one thing it still lacks, despite awkward efforts to fill the void: an operating system. Though Oracle has unsuccessfully courted Red Hat as an acquisition target for years, its affections might be better placed on Ubuntu.

Yes, by acquiring Sun, Oracle is gaining Solaris, but as Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst indicated in the Red Hat earnings call on Wednesday, the exodus of Solaris-to-Linux users continues apace, as Sun's attempt to neutralize Linux's appeal with OpenSolaris … Read more

Oracle has spent tens of billions of dollars buying companies that give it a diverse, rich product portfolio. Such industry consolidation also, not coincidentally, has granted Oracle significant pricing power and a ready-made bevy of customers to which it can cross-sell its products.

I wonder, however, if this is the best way for Oracle to be attracting new customers in a slow-growth enterprise software market.

I've suggested before that open source provides an efficient way to distribute software and attract new customers. No, it currently doesn't generate Oracle-worthy billions in profits, but it wouldn't need to for … Read more

CNET News Editor in Chief Dan Farber believes a wave of consolidation is about to hit the technology industry, as "sharks--Microsoft, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Cisco Systems, Oracle, and a few others--are looking at the landscape to see what fits best into their portfolios at discounted prices." I think he's right.

What will this mean for open source? Dave Rosenberg recently opined that Cisco could become the big consolidator of the commercial open-source ecosystem. He may be right, or perhaps Red Hat or Sun Microsystems will step up, though neither has the market capitalization to spend willy-nilly on … Read more